English

This course examines the design and execution of market research projects and the presentation of these results in a form useful for decision makers. Specific attention is paid to: planning a research project; use of experiments; identification of the research problem, selection of sample frame, and data collection methods; design of data collection instruments; data analysis and presentation.

This course focuses on the study of language in its social context, a branch of Linguistics that is referred to as sociolinguistics. The course includes topics such as: introduction (basic concepts and issues in sociolinguistics); regional variation; social variation; language change, language and social media; multilingualism; language and interaction; gender and language; language contact; pidgins, creoles and new Englishes; language planning and policy; language and education; the sociolinguistics of sign language. DP requirements: None. Assessment: Continuous assessment (essays, projects, tests, etc.) counts 100%.

This seminar explores crisis as both a topic of ethnographic research and a way of understanding contemporary social and political change, including economic breakdown, humanitarian intervention, environmental disaster, and political upheaval. Organized into three thematic blocks, the course begins with ethnographic case studies that examine how different communities, experts, and anthropologists experience and respond to crisis in everyday life. These cases are situated within broader historical and political processes such as imperialism, capitalism, and authoritarianism. The second block introduces crisis as an analytical concept, focusing on questions of time, rupture, repetition, and chronic or overlapping crises. Building on this approach, the final block explores alternative ways of thinking about social and political transformation beyond crisis. Through close reading, discussion, collaborative work, and selected multimedia materials, students move from concrete ethnographic analysis to theoretical comparison and critique, gaining the tools to critically assess dominant narratives of crisis and to develop alternative frameworks for understanding social and political transformation within or beyond crisis.

Is waging war ever morally justified, and, if so, when? Do affluent states and individuals harm the global poor? How should New Zealand deal with historic injustice and the legacy of colonialism? What is the fairest and most effective way of addressing climate change? This course investigates these questions and others that lie at the intersection of international relations and moral philosophy.

The course examines the politics of migration and border management in the European Union, focusing on immigration and asylum policies, border securitization, refugee management, and the externalization of migration control. Students analyze the political and social implications of these policies, including debates over European identity, xenophobia, and anti-immigration discourse.

The marketing concept, the marketing environment, consumer markets and industrial markets, buyer behavior, marketing research, the use and importance of differentiation, market segmentation and target marketing, the marketing mix, product policy, pricing policy, distribution policy, promotion policy, marketing strategy, marketing organization and implementation, measurement and control of marketing effectiveness including the marketing audit. DP requirements: 40% class mark and the completion of all required assignments. Assessment: Essays, case studies, project and test 50%; June / October examinations (2 hours) 50%.

Contradicting is a fundamental practice in journalism’s construction of reality. This ranges from showing “both sides of a story” to making contradictions themselves newsworthy. Yet, in a media environment where multiple competing claims exist side-by-side, how do journalists adjudicate between contradicting statements and sources? And how does journalism itself become an object of contradiction in this environment? This seminar tackles these questions by combining praxeological theoretical approaches with research on journalistic epistemology. First, the course discusses the key concepts and theories of contradicting as they relate to journalism as an institution of knowledge production. Building on this theoretical foundation, students analyze how journalism navigates contradiction in two ways: first, how it manages contradicting claims in its coverage, and second, how it responds when its reporting is contradicted by outside sources. For this, students analyze self-selected examples of journalistic reporting to apply these theoretical frameworks to concrete examples. By the end of the seminar, students are able to formulate a concise research question and critically analyze journalistic content.

This course provides an overview of the main facts about world economic history before and after the Industrial Revolution, focusing on the economic changes over the past 1,000 years.

The course examines the psychological and biological bases of individual differences in cognition, personality, behavior, and abilities. Students explore how people differ in intelligence, personality traits, motivation, emotional functioning, and the implications of these differences in education, work, and social contexts.  

The course examines the historical development of Barcelona from its Roman origins to the present day, exploring the city’s political, social, economic, and cultural transformations. Topics include medieval Catalonia, imperial conflicts, industrialization, urban development, Modernisme, the Civil War, Francoism, and democratic transition. Through historical analysis and primary sources, students investigate how Barcelona’s identity has been shaped by regional, national, and global influences.